Call of Silence
by Susan Bell
Summary: I've seen them, you know. I've followed the constellation. Followed her for miles and for years.


Call of Silence  
2017

~  
You will know you're reborn tonight  
Must be rough but I'll stay by your side  
Even if my body's bleached to the bones  
I don't want go through that ever again

So cry no more Oh my beloved  
Go ahead, be proud and fight it out  
You are the one, a rising star  
You got this far to hope  
You're a god  
~~

* * *

I've seen them, you know. I've followed the constellation. Followed her for miles and maybe years. I don't remember the journey so much anymore.  
I will never forget them.

Far, far down the longest road, where the sky finally meets the earth, The Midnight Star grows brighter and brighter, nearer and nearer, until at last she makes her descent from the sky in a burst of heavenly light. She is beautiful and so full of joy. I know she could never be the wicked queen from some of the old stories. She glitters with happiness and it spills onto the road, catching the world around in her joy-kissed light. In her love. How could anyone this happy have been so wicked?

The boy is always waiting, as he is always rumored to be, for her descent. I never heard his horse arrive but he is there. Every night. He has flashing eyes and several wild braids. His eyes never leave hers until at last he can finally reach her hand. And then she crushes her chest against him as she simply falls the last few steps; he catches her deftly. His teeth actually catch the moonlight, sparkly in the soft light. He has a smile of absolute happiness and they exchange a long, desperate kiss.

He murmurs her name and she his. I cannot hear but I know they are exchanging whispers of love, of gentle happiness. I wonder about him. More of the old legends are more consistent with who he was. A magician and a thief, a musician and the love of her life. I think about their lives, their desires. What had they wanted in life? What made them special that they got to spend every night together forever and ever. Had they been so good that the gods had shown them this greatest of gifts? Had they saved the world in daring and tragic victory?

Eventually they break apart and simply look at one another. They are so young. Her face is starlight but even I can see one of her eyes is gone, replaced by a starry scar. I feel a stir of aching. She is so stunning, this girl of astral radiance; even with her disfigurement, she is terrifyingly beautiful. She closes her eyes as they press their foreheads together. Then he is offering her his arm and helping her onto his horse. If they notice me, they don't show it. Why should they care at all? Tonight is theirs and nothing else can be bothered with. They trot away into the night, as if they might walk together in the heavens.  
They cannot, but maybe they get a littler closer each time. I hope so. For now he is tied to the earth, where his mortal soul is bound. Moritas had done him this favor when he finally reached the Underworld again, that his spirit could travel to the living world each night. But he could do no higher than the realm of the living. Though they might be separated by ground and sky, they have this time together. Every night. For eternity, they will meet, they will gaze at each otherwith a love so boundless that even the gods themselves had seen to it they never really be separated.

This is a love worth searching for. It is a love I had spent a great deal of my life searching for, to see, to know, for myself, that soulmates exit.

I was not young at all when I finally arrived at the edge of the world and I am that much older still. I tell my great, great nieces of the good Queen Adelina, and maybe sometimes I indulge in what Queen Adelina would have been like. I think I often make her to be much too kind. But I still tell my nieces to be good and kind, selfless like the Queen herself and they too would be rewarded with a fate such as hers. While searching for the love of a lost legend, I never thought to find a love of my own. I don't mind never having my own great romance, or even much of any romance. I never thought to see it out. I was never the one expected to have children and carry on the family line. Instead I left on a journey that turned me very old to find someone else's.

But it's out there and that is what matters most. I also tell this to my nieces. They will all have their great, beautiful romances. I tell them not to matter if you're royal and they are a poor musician. I tell them to never deny their hearts. Even my oldest, who is set to become our countries next Queen. Her shoulders sag a little, as of relieved of some great burden. She is the most beautiful of my descendants. Her eyes and hair are a dark, reassuring brown, her heart shaped face a pleasant tan. Her gaze is distant, as if she can already see her future. She will have a great love that will change her life and everything she knows. I know it. And I am so, so eager for her to find it.

~ Prince Elessandrio Amouteru of the Holy Kenettran Empire  
1692


End file.
